Day Trading Strategies Revisited

What a day eh? Once again Politicians conspire to screw things up but as far as we're concerned here at TWCS Central, bring it on guys. As long as the markets are moving then we don't care as we believe in trading every which way we can, long or short we don't care as long as there is opportunity for profit.

For example, initially we sold the FTSE this morning and also early afternoon. By late tea time GMT we thought we saw a window of opportunity to go long on the DOW round about the 7980 - 8000 range and went for it. £30K and 30 minutes later that went well and we got out when a couple of indicators flashed up and the market fell about another 100 points. Then we called the DOW long at 7880 and got out around the 7925 mark so profits were there also to the tune of £40K in six minutes.

From our point of view it will be interesting to see what happens overnight in the Far East. As long as the DJIA futures don't sustain too much damage and drag the FTSE futures down again below the 4,100 mark then we could see a bit of a rebound we reckon. The key level is around the November support level of 4,100. An end of day close below that and it's probably fill your boots time and sell, sell (at least for a few days). Maintain a position above that (and it is as we write at 4,171) and then we could see a rebound with a target of between 4,300 - 4,600 at least.

The trouble is that with the performance today of our esteemed Bankers in front of a Parliamentary Sub Committee then that could cloud matters and cause all sorts of uncertainties and confusion etc. The one thing (as today’s reaction in the US showed) is that it is uncertainty and surprises that spook the market. We all know there is bad news and by and large that is already priced in by the market makers but it is when our lovely politicians throw the odd unexpected spanner in the works that everybody goes into a flat panic.

Today’s address by US Treasury Secretary Geithner certainly has not helped the markets for those in search of a little stability and the amazing thing is that to be honest most traders could have foretold what the reaction was going to be to these proposals. Wall street closed last Friday looking for serious gifts from the Treasury (as one US Media spokesperson put it) and now it is being told that the gifts are not coming from the Treasury alone but also from Private Institutions as well. This latter part is going to be very interesting as I did say that these proposals were going to go down badly in an earlier article and without wishing to be too self effacing – I am no “Sooth Sayer” and if I could spot how badly they would be received then how in heaven’s name could the US Treasury not do so?.

The only other rationale could be “its grim news, it’s going to go down badly anyway so at east let’s get things out in the open. Watch the markets panic and try and re build stability gradually”. The trouble with this strategy is that it implies that the authorities are thinking constructively and logically about what they are doing.

Something that they don’t have too much of an impressive track record doing.